The Weekly Ramble – August 22, 2025

Summer vacation officially ends today. How did that happen?

Even more sobering? This is my last year as a homeschool mom. How did that happen?!

This will be my 24th year homeschooling. Pretty wild, don’t you think?

I distinctly remember that first day. My eldest had just turned 5. I had a newborn in my arms, and a rolly-poly 19 month old running around the house. Homeschooling added so much structure and purpose — and really I got myself an education during these last 2 1/2 decades.

I learned more history and science in the first five years than I remember from all of college!

And here we are at the end of the line. My baby turns 17 on Monday and starts her senior year of high school paired with dual enrollment at the community college. I don’t do a lot of hands-on teaching anymore, so this is a season of bittersweet moments, to be sure.

This week we got her a bank account and tried the new pretzel sandwich at Chick-fil-A. We agreed that it’s good, that it doesn’t taste like fast food, but like a restaurant sandwich, and that it’s too expensive and not exciting enough for us to get it again.

It was a sore reminder of HOW GOOD the Honey Pepper Pimiento Cheese Sandwich was. On the bright side, that, too, was too expensive, so I’ll be saving a good $40 this season not ordering it. #girlmath

Afterward we rambled through Hobby Lobby, checking out the fall and Christmas decor and debating about making a wooden star garland or just buying one. We opted to buy one when finding the right thickness of stars in store or online proved to be way too tedious.

We have big plans for her to crochet me a tea cozy to match my dishes. In fact, I’ve got big plans for adding more color to the house overall. It feels very exciting.

Now that I have my library with its pops of color, we’re going to be spreading the love elsewhere. Bryan has long wanted a music room so we’re going to turn the living room/TV room into a space for more music.

He has played guitar since he was 6 or 7. The four younger kids all play guitar or piano or both — most of them self-taught. So, this space will be a good place for jam sessions.

You may remember that we painted our dining room chairs a few years ago in lots of different colors. B is finishing off the last three that were in the garage as well as painting the music stands.

I also scrounged up a bunch of other things for him to paint while he’s painting all the things this weekend.

This is one of my own projects. A project with a long, sordid tale that is finally coming to an end.

We used this IKEA Hemnes sofa table in the old house for homeschool cubbies. It currently holds overflow kitchen equipment. For awhile I stored books in the top, but wanted better storage.

Sometime in the last two years, I hunted far and wide for baskets to fit that top section. I found Hyvens cardboard boxes at IKEA that I thought would fit, but didn’t. In frustration, I stashed them in the Room of Requirement until I decided what to do with them. You don’t pay the stupid tax until you get rid of the thing.

In this DIY era of mine, I realized that I could cut the lid off and make them fit my space. I did that last weekend, and painted them to see what I thought. Unfortunately I could only find three.

Bryan offered more than once to build me drawers, but I didn’t want to spend sweat equity on something whose solution was just outside my grasp.

I was awake early one morning this week scouring the internet from my bed, in search of an approximately shaped box or basket that wouldn’t cost a fortune. I gave up (again) in frustration.

When I got up to get dressed a few hours early, I found the 4th box already assembled — I knew it was somewhere! — in my closet. So, now we have one more thing to paint.

Well, four more because I want these to match the palette more closely. Haha.

Here’s what else I’ve been doing, eating, listening/watching, reading, and writing this past week.

I’m still working on decluttering projects, though my office one is taking longer than anticipated. In all the shuffle of stuff this summer, I have found quite a lot of money, including several hundred francs.

At face value, it’s not worth much. But if the internet is correct on its numismatics, I may have some rare finds. This week’s discovery was a 1931 wheat penny. A San Francisco one!

How in the world do I have some such thing? Well, in the days before there were state lotteries, my grandfather thought he’d make his million by building coin and stamp collections. I have a bucket of random pennies from him as well as this one that was special enough for someone to put in a case.

If you are a numismatist or know a reputable one, please let me know.

On Saturday we hosted a small crowd for our Monthly Game Night. The theme was snacky dinner. That is a lot more work than pasta or burgers, FYI.

It was still delicious. And because it was a smaller crowd, we had leftovers for days.

I’ve slowly been making extra of dinner to freeze as well as incorporating Bryan’s frozen burrito prep into my dinner prep. The freezer is full.

I need to create more space there, so the ice cream and frozen pineapple need to go soon. Any suggestions?

Miss 16 and I have taken our lunch breaks to work through Hallmark’s Signed, Sealed, Delivered series of films from back in the day when they were good. My sons have walked through while we were watching and asked the incredulous, “This is Hallmark?!”

Yes, yes, it is.

This particular one had us both sobbing. If you haven’t seen The Impossible Dream, I recommend it.

I’ve also binged the last season of Father Brown and Chelsea Detectives, too, while making dinner. Our channels expire in two weeks so that will be the end of my TV stint.

What I’ve Been Reading

After months of reading like it was my job — it kinda really was as I embarked on expanding my writing to include fiction — my reading time has slowed.

In my effort to get 40 billable hours for my business, I’m finding that reading time is more precious in this season. I’ve consumed a lot of audio and video the last two weeks, because I can do other things at the same time.

My reading this week was limited to Sunday afternoon but it was nice to continue my reread of Eve in Exile with a cuppa and a leftover cupcake from game night.

What I’ve Been Writing

Here’s what’s NEW on Good Cheap Eats:

• Margherita Flatbread Pizza
• Pizza Tools To Make Pizza Night Easier
• Save Money With These Homemade Pizza Recipes

Re: fiction, My original goal was to have at least one novel written by New Year’s Eve. I’m maybe 1/3 to 1/2 done with that, but I haven’t looked at my WIP since May. Sigh.

It’s a wild dream, I know. Maybe even foolish. I’ve had all kinds of conflicting emotions about it.

I’m hoping to get past the house projects and back to school and my blog projects to have some dedicated time for fiction soon. I know I have to book that time to make it happen.

Alrighty then, that’s it for me! Be sure to leave a comment below and share what’s up with you these days!